Synopsis: A rig owned by Aegis Oil catches fire in
Valdez, Alaska. Ruthless company boss Michael Jennings brings in
trouble-shooter Forrest Taft to stop the blaze. Rig foreman Hugh Palmer
blames Jennings for the disaster, claiming his boss forced him to use
faulty safety equipment. Forrest discovers the allegation is true.
Jennings has to get the world’s biggest oil rig, Aegis-1, online soon or
else oil rights worth billions of dollars a week will revert to the
native Eskimos. The company is deliberately using faulty equipment
because waiting for replacements would mean missing the deadline.
Jennings has Palmer murdered and tries to kill Forrest too. But Taft
survives the blast and is nursed back to health by the Eskimos. Forrest
takes vengeance on the oil company, sabotaging Aegis-1 just before it
goes online and drowning Jennings in oil. The Eskimos reclaim their
land…

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Martial arts expert
Steven Seagal was just a minor action movie hero until Under Siege
stormed the US box office in 1992. Its success gave him the clout to
make On Deadly Ground, an action movie with a pro-environment message.
Seagal was the star of the film, one of three producers and made his
directing debut. Shooting began in 1993 with five weeks on location in
Alaska. The cast and crew endured blizzards and wild extremes of
temperature. ‘This is a picture I care deeply about,’ Seagal said in the
movie’s publicity material. ‘If it wasn’t something special, I wouldn’t
gone to the great effort and risk.’

He hired Caine to star as
evil oil company boss Michael Jennings, continuing a Hollywood trend of
hiring British actors to play villains for action features. Caine
praised his boss in the studio-approved publicity material: ‘A
first-time director brings a whole new load of fresh ideas. Steven has a
very strong vision of what this movie is and should be. He earned my
trust. I wouldn’t have come and just done a crash, bang martial arts
film. There’s more to On Deadly Ground than that. Although we have an
exciting piece of entertainment, the film does carry an important
message as well.’ The actor explained his reasons for taking the role:
‘In a film called Mona Lisa (1986) I played a really dark character with
no nice side at all, and I had a great time. I thought it would be fun
to do it again.’

Behind the scenes Caine was less than
impressed. During a public interview at the NFT in 1998, the actor said
his experiences while making On Deadly Ground helped drive him into
semi-retirement: ‘I … sort of stopped worked because the joy had gone
out of doing it. I finally wound up in Alaska with Steven Seagal, which
took quite a lot of joy out of it. I remember ringing down to the desk
in my hotel and saying, “Could you send someone up for the laundry?” And
they said, “The laundrette’s next door.” And I was freezing my butt
off, and I thought, I don’t need this, so I stopped.’

After
Alaska the production moved to the state of Washington for more location
filming before concluding shooting at Los Angeles with further location
work and interiors on a soundstage. There was a dispute between Seagal
and Warner Brothers studio over the final cut of On Deadly Ground. The
picture concludes with the star delivering an environmental lecture that
attacks big business and alleges political collusion in pollution.
Rumours at the time suggested Seagal’s original cut of the film had a
10-15 minute lecture, but the studio insisted this edited down to four
minutes for the final cut.

On Deadly Ground was released in
America with an R rating in February 1994. Lambasted by critics, it
grossed nearly $40 million – less than half what Under Siege had taken.
Seagal won the Razzie award as worst director for this feature and has
not directed a film since. On Deadly Ground reached British cinemas a
month later, with the BBFC requiring seventy seconds of cuts before
granting a 15 rating. It grossed more than $2 million. On Deadly Ground
was released on video several months later and remains available. A DVD
version was issued in the US.

Reviews: ‘This is a vanity production parading as a social statement.’ – Variety‘An
embarrassed Michael Caine looks to be having second thoughts from his
first frame to his last, when he begs, "Go ahead, shoot me!" The film
probably feels the same way.’ – The Washington Post

Verdict: On
Deadly Ground has a car crash quality, being so compulsively awful it is
difficult to tear your eyes away. Seagal acts with the panache of a
rice pudding. His pro-environment sentiments are laudable, but the
delivery is laughable. After an orgy of violence, the lecture at the
finale carries no weight or credibility. Caine’s performance is among
the worst of his career, with an accent that veers from Cockney to
California and back again. Just as variable is his hair colour,
appearing jet black in some scenes and dark brown in others, as if Caine
was combing his locks with Marmite. Comparisons to his performance in
Mona Lisa are risible, to say the least. Whatever the size of his fee
for this farrago, it was not enough to match the indignity On Deadly
Ground heaped upon his career.